Residents have revealed to me that this Labour run council is now introducing an appalling and extortionate £195 “admin fee”, on any community in Croydon who would like to register for a Children’s Play Streets. This new unfair fee will price out a lot of communities from the scheme, who would not be able to pull together the funds now required by Croydon Council.
I am shocked and appalled that this Labour Council is yet again punishing our communities in Croydon because they made the borough bankrupt!
“We have Set up Play Streets in Croydon to bring communities together and get children more active” - Croydon Labour's Election Manifesto.
But only a few years later, and now Labour has the audacity to now ask local communities to help balance their budget. This Councils poor actions will adversely impact the very ethos stated in their manifesto as benefits for introduction such a scheme in the borough!
The now Leader Cllr Hamida Ali, and ex Croydon Council Leader Tony Newman, even released a video in 2015, promoting the benefits and “why it Is worthwhile”, for communities to embrace this scheme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRg-pa9vyz4
"Residents who have got together, and have done this for themselves", Cllr Hamida Ali.
As stated by the Croydon Council Leader herself, a lot of the admin work and effort to register for the Play Street scheme is taken by the community directly, so how can this Labour Council possibly justify a near £200 admin charge?!
Croydon Labour have made it even harder for communities to set up play streets across the borough, how will this positively help “bring communities together, and get children more active”?
This is yet another poor and very unfair and ill thought out policy decision taken by this very poor Labour Council, and of course it has not gone down well with the community at all! Several petitions have already been circulated, with hundreds of local people signing against the Labour Councils decision to introduce the new £195 admin fee.
I have written to Cabinet Member for Sustainable Croydon, Cllr Muhammed Ali, and asked him to justify the impact this very unfair charge will have on communities across the borough, what it will mean to streets across the borough who will no longer be able to afford to register for the Play Streets Scheme in Croydon, and to reverse this very poor policy, for the good of all communities across the borough!
I will keep you updated.
Cllr Scott Roche
Shadow Cabinet Member for Sustainable Croydon.
